From the kitchen to the racetrack and back again

Bacon and brie salad

When things have been super busy recently and the sun has been out, salad is the go to meal. The great thing about salad is you can adapt to your own tastes so I haven’t listed quantities below. A slightly less healthy salad can be found here.

Fry or grill the bacon until crispy then crumble or chop, I used my Hairy Bikers Health Grill and Panini Press which I thought I had mentioned before but I cannot find it now. See below for my review of it – this is entirely independent, I purchased the grill myself.

Next step is the crutons, I use a hob-to-oven skillet so that I can put them in the oven to keep warm if necessary. Melt roughly a tablespoon on butter in the pan, cut two slices of bread into cubes (about 1cm) and toss in the melted butter, leave on a medium high heat and stir/toss regularly until crispy all over.

Whilst these are cooking, prep the salad. I use bagged salad for a few reasons, the Small Person does not like lettuce so we tend to have a mixture of leaves that include spinach, a bag means less waste and less time spent chopping. Peppers, tomatoes and cucumber can be chopped to your preferred size.A tasty but easy salad

Once prepped, toss in the bacon and brie. I usually serve crutons on the side although these could also be added to the salad. The brie worked well with the crutons but less so with the salad, I still prefer mozzarella and you can use any cheese of your choice. Soft boiled or poached eggs also work well with this.

The review:

This Hairy Bikers Health Grill and Panini Press has been a godsend in my kitchen recently, it’s great for doing bacon on, just this morning I had bacon and brie on an English muffin and used the grill to toast the muffin as well as cook the bacon. All the fat drains away through a hole in the side which goes into two small drip trays. The grill itself is quite easy to keep clean but I would prefer it if you could remove the plates to clean it properly.

Chicken is best when you have pounded it to an even thickness, similar to a barbecue we have found that the chargrilled lines that are left can be a little hard but it packs plenty of flavour and keeps the meat moist. So far we have cooked lamb, steaks, chicken and pork on here and all have worked well. Marinades can catch a little but by making the meat thinner less cooking is needed, mint sauce and yogurt on the lamb worked really.